Secret Love - Brenda Jackson [26]
Jake knew he should pull back, but when his hand touched her breasts, all thoughts of ending the kiss left him. Even through the material of her dress, her breasts were a perfect fit in the palm of his hand. It was as if they were made for him. He heard her groan in his mouth when his fingertips touched them. He deepened the kiss, wanting and needing to feed off her groans and her moans.
Aching for more torture, he reached down to the hem of her dress and lifted it up partway. He needed to touch her thighs, he wanted to feel the heat and the need in her. But first, he had to breathe. He was dying a suffocating death of mind-killing arousal. He suddenly broke off the kiss, his breathing forced, labored, exerted.
Jake knew he had to do something to regain control of his mind and his senses. If he stayed around her any longer, there would be no choice in the matter. He would be tasting her everywhere, he would be making love to her each and every day she remained on the ranch. He wouldn’t give any thoughts to Whispering Pines. His only thoughts would be to stay inside her body, mating with her, seeing her features flushed with his heat, knowing that the skin covering her body was entrenched in his scent.
He knew that getting involved with Diamond would demand all that he had, and he couldn’t let that happen. He couldn’t let his lust for a woman be this strong, this addictive. Even with Rhonda it wasn’t like this. It didn’t even come close. He hadn’t seen Rhonda in over eight months, and he hadn’t felt a potent urge to call her. He hadn’t experienced such raw longing until Diamond’s arrival on Whispering Pines. Somehow he had to fight this pull, this overwhelming urge.
Taking another deep breath, Jake pulled Diamond’s dress down and gently lifted her out of his lap and placed her back in her seat. Without saying another word, he opened his side of the vehicle, got out and walked around to hers. Opening her door, he picked her up in his arms and carried her to the door and placed her on her feet.
The light on the porch created an intimacy neither of them needed right now. He stepped back, knowing he couldn’t dare touch her again. He kept his gaze steady with hers, trying not to notice her lips, swollen and moist from his kiss, and the longing and wanting that were still in her eyes.
“Do you want me to leave Whispering Pines?”
Her whispered question broke the quiet stillness of the night. “No,” he whispered, when deep down he knew he should be saying yes. “No, I don’t want you to leave. What I want is for us to know that it will never work.”
“And you’re sure of that, Jacob?”
“Yes, so accept that as I have. In the meantime, we’ll have to be mature enough to deal with it. We’re not two animals whose only urge is to mate. We’re two intelligent human beings who can recognize when a situation won’t work. This is one of them. I don’t want to hurt you and I refuse to let you hurt me.”
“And you think I will hurt you?”
“Yes. I discovered long ago that nothing is usually as it should be, not the way you’d like it to be.” He took a step back. “I’ll be by early in the morning to get you for the cattle drive, since you’re determined to go on our first day out. Good night, Diamond.”
She watched him walk back to his Jeep and leave.
Chapter 8
J ake wasn’t surprised the next morning to find Diamond dressed and enjoying a mug of coffee when he arrived at the cabin during the predawn hours.
To make matters simple, he had saddled up a horse at the ranch, a mare he’d felt would be easy enough for her to handle, and had hitched the animal to his horse and brought it along. Diamond had been standing on the deck, waiting for him when he’d ridden up. She had immediately put down her mug and smiled, evidently pleased with his choice of a horse for her.
“She’s beautiful, Jacob,” she said, as she took a good look at the horse she would be riding that day. She reached up to touch the animal’s muzzle. Diamond’s smile widened when the